When an individual, or groups or teams of individuals, utilize the Internet to search for and to access a web site that contains specific information/data, e.g., some type of technical information that is pertinent to that individual's search, the information/data that is returned to those individuals, via a graphical display, has been previously compiled. This means that the information/data that is presented to the individual is only as current as the last update. It is, unfortunately, commonplace for the most recent update to have taken place weeks, months, or, in some instances, years earlier.
The information/data, e.g., technical information regarding a company's product, that is available to the individual, or groups thereof, is the result of a rather laborious process of acquiring the necessary information, categorizing the information into related sections, compiling that information into a, hopefully, well organized format, which will then allow an individual to obtain the information/data that is pertinent to their specific needs.
The acquisition, categorization, compilation, presentation, and the subsequent mandatory maintenance of that technical information is an extremely expensive, time consuming and laborious task. Current methods used for knowledge acquisition and subsequent propagation to its audience are time consuming, very inefficient and expensive. Access to the experts, e.g., development engineers, software developers, field engineers, etc., who supply the source information is difficult at best due to their busy schedules. As such, they have a minimal amount of time to contribute to and/or to review the technical information to be documented, much less spending time explaining things to those who are directly involved in the writing and creating of the technical guide. In addition, pulling them away from their primary tasks could be directly associated with added costs of product development as well as impacting the projected delivery date of their company's products. However, their collaboration, with regard to the technical information, is clearly required throughout all phases of deployment of, e.g., that company's product/solution.
Additionally, it is also important to obtain the information to be utilized from a wide array of organizations and perspectives such as technical assistance centers, field organizations, and professional services. It would be especially advantageous to have a more comprehensive knowledge base from which to draw the information, therefore providing to an individual a more complete reference material.
Furthermore, dissemination of the technical information/data is critical to the success of a company's product line as the production/solution must be supportable throughout all phases of deployment of that product.
Currently, common viable means of gathering this information from the engineers, developers, and other experts include, in one example, the acquisition of the information through countless e-mails, which is accompanied by the usual wait time for a response. Another method of gathering the information can be through conference calls between the involved contributors, provided, of course, that each contributor has the time available. As is well known, scheduling conflicts among engineers and developers are not uncommon, which can postpone the conference calls for days, weeks, or even months, which could delay the release of the company's products. Additionally, another means of gathering the information involves the off-site meeting, which, by virtue of the travel required, is even more difficult to schedule than a conference call.
All of these factors contribute to unnecessarily incurred expenses in either the time spent tracking down the information, or in time spent completing the information when acquired in a fragmented form, or in the time and effort spent determining if there was a duplication of the information obtained. Other factors that may contribute to the higher costs of production and/or deployment of a company's product/solution may include the determination of whether the information obtained is marginal, with regard to the appropriateness of the content, and/or incomplete documentation, and the delayed transfer of that information from the engineers, developers, and the like.
Once the information has been obtained, the question remains of how to publish the information. Common publishing methods have numerous drawbacks. One such draw back to the customary methods of publishing technical guides, e.g., troubleshooting guides, is that the desired information is usually in a format dictated by the author or company thereof. Because of the technical guide's fixed format, it is quite common for a published technical guide to contain sections or portions thereof that are of very little interest to a user. A reader or user may only want one specific section, or a select portion of the guide, and therefore may have little or no use for other sections or portions that are not related to their specific requirements.
An additional drawback to the customary methods of online publishing is that the order in which the content of the document, e.g., a technical guide, is presented is controlled by the author or the company thereof. For example, the order of the content in the document may be in proper order to a company or author distributing a document such as troubleshooting guide. However, to a different individual or company, the order of that same document may appear to have been organized in a totally haphazard, illogical, and confusing manner.
A further draw back to the customary methods of the publishing of technical guides, is that once the information has been assimilated, it is usually presented to the individual in a completed format, where the individual has to view the entire technical guide. This wastes not only the individual's time having to read through the entire guide, regardless of whether the information is relevant, but also wastes either space on the storage device when it is saved in an electronic form or it wastes natural resources by requiring the printing of the entire document.
Thus, a need exists for a method of receiving user submitted information that not only has continuous, simultaneous and omnipresent availability to all potential information providers, but also is capable of storing and categorizing that information as it is received. A further need exists for providing feedback to the user who submitted the information. Additionally, a need exists for a method to make this information available to all potential users of the information as soon as it is received.
Thus, a need exists for providing a method for documents, e.g., technical guides, to be published or distributed such that the information contained within the document is current and up-to-date. Another need exists for a method of distributing or publishing the document in such a manner that the entire document does not need to be published. An additional need exists for a method for providing a way for a user to determine the order of the document, thereby fulfilling their particular requirement at that particular time. A further need exists for a method that provides a way for a user to determine the output formatting properties of the document. Additionally, a need exists for a method that provides a way for a user to determine the content, e.g., technical information, of the document to be distributed or published.